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Danielle Teale Dance is working in collaboration with the Dance for Parkinson’s Partnership UK to offer artists new to the field of dance with Parkinson's an opportunity to expand their skills through shadowing of existing Dancing with Parkinson’s classes. Artists will also gain the opportunity to have one-to-one dance teacher mentoring from Danielle Teale.

I'm so proud to have been a choreographer once again on this wonderful project led by English National Ballet, now in its 5th year. Hammersmith Academy students have smashed it and I can't wait to see them shine tomorrow at Sadler's Wells alongside three other schools, Friern Barnet, Hampstead School and Cophtall School, as well as the incredibly talented ENBYouthCo dancers.

DANIELLE TEALE (UK)

Danielle Teale is a highly experienced independent community dance artist based in London. Her work is inspired by curiosity in human nature, people and their capacity for expression and connectedness. Her values and her dance practice are founded on equality, empathy and relationality. Danielle’s work with people with Parkinson’s has spanned many years of delivery, programme design, teacher training, mentoring and research with organisations such as Mark Morris Dance Group, English National Ballet, University of Roehampton, People Dancing and Dance for Health Rotterdam. You can see more about her ongoing practice on her website: www.danielleteale.com

Danielle advocates for the participant voice and embodied knowledge of the dancer. In her own words:

We should not ignore the vital role that the dancers with Parkinson’s themselves play in the development of a robust, specialist sector by sharing their embodied experience through research and through kinaesthetic transference of knowledge to those they dance with.

— Danielle Teale

Danielle believes that when working with movement disorder, the most knowledgeable people are those experiencing it, and working with it to push the boundaries of what we know to be possible.

Danielle’s recent practice-based research which places the dancer at the forefront of the enquiry, has been developed out of an artistic collaboration with visual artists in film, photography and fine art. ‘Explorations in Collectivity and Intimacy’ is an ongoing process driven project looking at two opposing ways of approaching dance which offer different experiences to the artist, dancer and audience in all contexts. Danielle has primarily worked with visual artist Sara Hibbert and together they produced a 15-minute dual screen film installation which was originally shown at Royal College of Art Dyson Gallery as part of the Altai Residency.

This research sparked interesting dialogue around the cross overs between the neurological, perceptual, and phenomenological experience of moving collectively; and the notion of movement conformity and how the collective can suggest one way of being or moving. Collaborating with a visual artist also brought up the role of art and the moving image in presenting new ways of seeing, understanding, and deconstructing the Parkinson’s body. These broad themes have led to a fluid and evolving process of exploration in practice. The film represents a ‘chapter’ of the work in process. The project will evolve further with additional cross arts collaborations and workshops planned throughout 2018. To see more of the research and questions arising from this project, as well as the film ‘Collective Field 2017’ you can visit the project blog https://explorationsincollectivity.wordpress.com/

This research has also impacted Danielle’s facilitation and leadership approach to classes for dancers with Parkinson’s. She is interested in contrasting ways of exploring external and internal cueing through dance. External cueing through demonstration, mirroring, touch, sound and music provide concrete initiators for movement. Whereas internal cueing gives the dancer the choice to develop their own personal movement language. This connects with Danielle’s ongoing interest in co-ownership and equality across artist and dancers, with dancers contributing to the movement research process as experts.

Danielle leads a number of classes and workshops across London and the south of England, providing weekly artistic opportunities for people with Parkinson’s, as well as mentoring, shadowing and training for dance artists and musicians.